As an ambassador for Gross National Happiness (GNH), Dr. Tho Ha Vinh, born in France, the child of a French mother and a Vietnamese father, has become known in wide circles – in the German-speaking world through his book Grundrecht auf Glück (Basic Right to Happiness), and in many European cities through his lectures and seminars. He was the first program director of the Gross National Happiness Training Center in Bhutan (www.gnhcentrebhutan.org), founded in 2012. The trainings developed by GNH Centre Bhutan and offered there are aimed at both the people of Bhutan and an international audience. It teaches how to practically apply the concept of Gross National Happiness.
But what is Gross National Happiness and what life path led Tho Ha Vinh to become an ambassador for Gross National Happiness? After his training, Tho Ha Vinh worked in the curative Camphill village community Perceval in Saint-Prex on Lake Geneva. It was important to him that in this community a consistent solidarity approach to money was cultivated. When the political situation after the Vietnam War allowed it, he and his wife Lisi Ha Vinh began to collect donations and to build up curative education facilities in Vietnam. They advocated for the disabled, who had no advocates in post-war Vietnam. He was able to gain the trust of the Vietnamese authorities. This activity continues to this day. It led to the founding of the Eurasia Association for the Promotion of Remedial Education in Vietnam www.eurasia.org.vn and later to the founding of the Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing (elihw.org). – In addition, during this time Tho and Lisi Ha Vinh earned their teaching credentials as Buddhist teachers (Dharmacharya) with Thich Nhat Hanh; Thich Nhat Hanh has been awarded a Giraffe on www.giraffe.org for his peace advocacy during the Vietnam War.
After more than 2 decades of working for curative education and after studying psychology and education, he became the head of the training and education department at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC’s aid projects took him to many crisis areas of the world from 2005.
In 2012, his field of activity changed once again fundamentally. At the age of 59, at a time when some people are thinking about retirement, he and his wife left the wealthy, secure Switzerland and moved to Bhutan, a country with almost 30 times less per capita income according to the World Bank. Tho Ha Vinh followed the call as program director at GNH Centre Bhutan, turning down other much better paying job offers. He describes this move as making it possible for him to work on the causes of social hardship, that his work at the ICRC was comparatively work on the symptoms. Why? If one succeeds in steadily promoting the happiness and well-being of an entire population (growth of Gross National Happiness, GNH), one ultimately works to prevent refugee flows. It should be noted that the goal is to increase overall happiness. All people in the country and also the state of the environment go into the Gross National Happiness (GNH). In addition, human happiness is seen as a skill that must be practiced and cultivated. Bhutan sees itself as a laboratory for the world, working out which indicators can be used to measure gross national happiness. These indicators are to be adapted to the culture living in the country concerned. The GNH Centre Bhutan has been established to enable people at home and abroad to apply the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in their own environment.
Dr. Tho Ha Vinh has returned to Switzerland in 2018. As a sought-after speaker and seminar leader, he passes on his knowledge, showing a concrete alternative to the economic growth-fixated motto “money rules the world.”